The pressure for change is enormous. Hundreds of NGOs from churches to Greenpeace are demanding that the world immediately stop using Russia’s fossil fuels, writes ‘s foreign journalist Mika Mäkeläinen.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin promised yesterday on Friday that Russia will meet all financial standards obligations (you move to another service) abroad. It is above all about the export of oil and gas.
So Central Europe does not have to worry about freezing during the last winter frosts. Was this a conciliatory gesture from Putin?
Exports of oil and gas to Europe are a very lucrative source of income for Russia.
By buying oil and gas, Europe is therefore financing the Russian war machine.
Starting a war with Russia has even drastically increased its own sales margin, as the price of both oil and gas has skyrocketed due to the war.
Now in the winter the gas bill is naturally higher. At the turn of the year, the decline was due to a researcher at the Bruegel incubator Georg Zachmannin according to (you switch to another service) almost € 200 million a day.
A couple of days ago, his gas bill had risen to as much as € 660 million a day.
In the case of long-term contracts, the price may not rise so sharply, so Gazprom is unlikely to recoup just such an amount.
In any case, at these prices and with consumption, EU countries are thus financing Russia – and, indirectly, its war – with hundreds of millions of euros every day.
To put it bluntly, it could even be argued that oil- and gas-dependent western countries have rewarded Russia for starting a war because they have not compromised on their consumption, but are paying Russia even bolder euro bundles.
At most, noble intentions are visible about the change of line in the West.
Restrictions on payment transactions imposed on Russia do not apply to the oil and gas business, because Europe did not want to. Russia, for its part, has not imposed counter-sanctions on oil and gas supplies because the money will continue to be worth it. Warfare is not cheap.
What is Finland’s share from this cash flow?
Let’s count. Manager Antti Paananen The Finnish Energy Agency tells that, for example, yesterday on Friday, Finland received about 72,000 megawatt hours of natural gas from Russia.
Quantities and prices vary from day to day, and the agreed price may not be the market price, so no very far-reaching conclusions can be drawn from this.
However, if Finland could do without the gas imported from Russia, even millions would be out of the income of an autonomous country. The Russian state is the largest owner of Gazprom.
Finland has already reduced their use of gas in about half a decade. In addition, part of the natural gas currently comes from the Baltics.
‘s energy representative at the Security of Supply Center interviewed by Timo Vapalahti says that for oil, switching the source of the raw material is even easier.
Efforts are being made to break away from Russian energy elsewhere as well.
The pressure for change is now enormous. Hundreds of NGOs from churches to Greenpeace require (move to another service) on Friday, the whole world to immediately quit using Russia’s fossil fuels.
Of course, cutting the oil and gas cord would also have serious consequences, as ‘s financial supplier Elli-Alina Hiilamo analyzes.
This analysis is the tenth in a series that News continues during the Russian invasion. We publish a brief but in-depth and context-sensitive analysis every day at about 12 noon.
You can discuss this topic until Sunday, March 6 at 11 p.m.